The Jester and the Bat
by Ketakoshka Kathleen Castlionia
Summary: A long time ago, the Joker and Batman were friends, but they were torn away from one another...


**Disclaimer: God, I wish I owned Batman... Actually, I just want Jack. We'd make such good friends...**

**Warnings: Yaoi (no lemon), um... Joker being the Joker at times... that's about it**

* * *

**The moment I heard the song below, I thought both Harley x Joker and Bruce x Joker. I don't know why, but it spawned this story...**

**-Keta**

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The Jester and the Bat

**_Taste me, drink my soul_**

******_Show me all the things that I shouldn't know_**

******_And there's a blue moon on the rise_**

**_I had everything_**

******_Opportunities for eternity_**

******_And I could belong to the night_**

******_Your eyes, your eyes_**

******_I can see in your eyes_**

******_Your eyes everything in your eyes, your eyes_**

**_-Make Me Wanna Die (The Pretty Reckless)_**

His face aches, and he can feel his mentality getting more fragile by the moment. But Jack just laughs, a cruel, dark laugh that has haunted the back of his mind since that fateful day when he was first set on this path, the path to become what he certainly will. He looks into a puddle of rainwater at his new, grotesque appearance and the laughing only gets louder, for he looks like a clown with ruby red lips, stark white skin and candy-ish green hair, and that's ironic because the only person he can think of right now had called him the jester once… And he'd, in return, called him a bat.

* * *

He'd been born Jack Napier, the son of a mobster and a quiet girl who'd gotten herself mixed up in the wrong crowd. From the start, their relationship was rocky, and it only got worse when their son was born. His father became both verbally and physically violent towards his family, but it increased when he started drinking. One night, the alcohol went a bit far, and the violence was too physical, resulting in his mother's corpse that lied stabbed apart on the floor and Jack's mouth carved up into a smile. Two days later, his father was found dead in an alley by a gunshot to the head, execution style.

With no family to take him in, Jack became a ward of the state and was given to an orphanage on the more profitable side of Gotham. It just so happened that the park next to it, where he spent most of his days, was not far from Wayne Mansion. It was there that he met his only friend in the world, another young boy named Bruce. Bruce was such a kind boy; to the point that while everyone else ran away from the terrifying, smiling, mobster's son, he made an effort to get to know Jack, and they became fast friends. It was of no surprise that the brunette boy started pleading with his parents to adopt Jack, and once they did, he moved out of the orphanage and into the manor.

Oh, the fun they had in that large house, but it was not to last.

The night before the papers were finalized to make Jack officially theirs, Thomas and Martha Wayne were murdered by the same mob Jack's father had belonged to, right in front of the boys. Jack was sent to the orphanage again, and Bruce to other family, leaving the blonde boy all alone in the world without anyone in his corner. All he had left of that dream was a stuffed animal, a bat that Bruce had urged his father into buying as a welcome to the family present, and so Jack was alone again.

He remained a ward of the state until he was nineteen.

By the time he was free, he was already attending college and getting his doctorate in chemistry, never forgetting Bruce in all of that time. While there, he met a lovely lady named Jennie, and after a stupid mistake at a party near the end of their schooling, they slept together. With a baby girl on the way and his gambling at an all-time high, Jack grew desperate and agreed to work with mobsters despite his obvious disdain for them and broke into the factory where he worked…

He realizes that Batman was Bruce just three days after the catastrophe his life has turned into ends. His wife and child are murdered because of his failure, and so he devotes his time to making them pay and getting back to his beloved Bruce. Devotion turns into love, and love quickly deteriorates into obsession that not even Batman is incapable of missing.

* * *

The clown watches the moon above as he waits for the Batman to come after him, and he wonders if there's ever going to be a day where he'll just be able to talk to Bruce again. Lost in his thoughts, he almost misses when his partner in crime, Harley Quinn comes up onto the roof of the orphanage. "Mista J?"

"What do you want, Harley?"

"Batman's fighting Penguin right now."

Anger rages in Joker, and he immediately jumps up and walks over to her, clenching his hands into fists. "What?!"

"He's busy…"

That anger evaporates just as quick as it came and turns into sorrow. "He's too busy for me… And just as well, why would he come to this place." He doesn't say it aloud to her, thinking it instead. 'It's not like this place is special to our past.' The two of them stand alone for a few minutes before the familiar hum of the batcycle can be heard. "Let's go downstairs, Harley. We have a guest to greet."

* * *

When they get downstairs, their thugs are already knocked out and the children have run off; thankfully, the matron hasn't gone, but that's because she's dead. "Hello, Batsy."

"Joker."

"Harley, go upstairs again. The bat and I need to talk alone."

She looks surprised at this but doesn't question his decision. "Alright, puddin'."

When they're alone, the Joker moves to sit on the table where he'd once did his homework.

"I'm tired of this game, Bruce." Jack knows he caught his old friend by surprise when he doesn't say anything. "You don't know who I am, do you?"

"No," the bat admits. "Who are you really, Joker?"

"Jack Napier..."

Whatever Bruce expected, this isn't it. "Jack? My childhood friend Jack? There's no possible way you are the same person."

"Why?" The green-haired man raises an eyebrow as this is said but doesn't get too excited, but that's simply because be expected something like it. "Because I can't 'prove' it? Well, I can. Your parents tried to adopt me because you wanted them to. You wanted me to live with you, my precious bat. You loved me as your jester a long time ago!" Jack starts to deflate, whispering, "don't leave me again... I'll do anything you want if you just let me come back!"

"You won't kill anymore?"

"Not unless its necessary..."

* * *

A year passed for Gotham in which the Joker disappeared from the streets, Harley Quinn was locked up for good in Arkham, and Bruce Wayne gained a bachelor playmate. Jack for the most part behaved himself, but he couldn't be a perfect angel forever.

He might have been able to contain himself if he hadn't spilled his guts one night over a bottle of champagne; God, he shouldn't touch alcohol of any kind; and Bruce was rightfully freaked out. But Jack didn't see it that way. He saw it as a cruel attempt to push him away as well as an excuse to do the one thing he shouldn't.

Alfred was the one to wake Bruce up in the dead of night to inform him that his oldest friend had been picked up by the police, but thankfully, none of his makeup rubbed off to reveal his obvious nature. So when the Batman picks his ex-nemesis up, they ride in silence until the billionaire decides he's had enough. "Jack…"

"What?"

"I'm sorry about the way I've been avoiding you; this is what this is all about, isn't it?"

"Yes," the former supervillain drawls out. "How can it not?"

"I didn't mean to push you away, I just wasn't expecting that."

"It's alright… After all, who would think that the Joker would fall in love with the Batman."

And as they pull into Wayne mansion, Bruce turns to look at Jack and leans forward to press his lips to the others, delighting in how startled the green-haired man becomes. "Or that the feelings would be returned."

"Returned?" Jack's mind ceases to work, but his ears still do.

"I love you too, Jester…"


End file.
